Hairstyles and Headdresses of the Victorian, Edwardian, and Ragtime Eras contains illustrations from many period ladies' magazines and catalogues, such as Godey's Lady's Book, Harper's Bazar, and The Delineator. The time period covered is the 1850’s to 1920, with an emphasis on the decades of most interest to Vintage Dancers (1860's, 1890's, and 1910's). The principal content is illustrations of hairstyles, some with step by step instructions with which to reproduce the styles. In addition, pictures and descriptions of a wide variety of hair accessories such as headdresses (ranging from understated to wildly exotic), hair combs, hairpieces and hair pins. Period advertisements for hair related products round out the volume.

A great simplicity is about to succeed the elaborate coiffures we have seen too long; curls or plaits will constitute all the ornament of the hair.

Peterson’s Magazine, September 1869           

For evening dress the hair arranged high has a much smarter effect, and, besides, admits of the wearing of ornaments much better than when arranged low. A great many women now possess diamond crowns, stars, and coronets but even one ornament, a stiff perky little bow, will add greatly to the effect of a handsome ball gown.

Harper’s Bazar, April 13, 1895           

The new hair ornaments that form the proper finish for all elaborate hairdressing and without which no evening coiffure is complete, are very artistic and graceful and in most cases extremely becoming.

McCall's Magazine, January 1911           

This book is intended to help the Vintage Dancer or reenactor interested in a variety of periods to gain an understanding of what types of hairstyles were popular during these decades and also gain insight into how to reproduce those styles even if they do not have hair down to their knees. The correct hairstyle will go a long way in creating a successful period impression; period hairstyles are often quite different from modern styles and cannot usually be created well ahead of time. They are often the most difficult part of a historic ensemble to reproduce successfully.

The original volume has been expanded in this new revised edition to explore each period in greater depth, with hundreds of new illustrations from each decade from a wider range of original period sources.

8 ½" by 11" high quality photocopy, with glue-in binding
131 pages
100's of black and white illustrations
first published 1996
revised and expanded edition September 2001.
$13.00
View this book's Table of Contents and Bibliography

© 2001, Vintage Victorian, All rights reserved